Real estate may bottom out...which just means that prices stop falling.
There is no guarantee that real estate prices will increase steadily, however. Look at Miami with thousands of empty, new condos coming on the market between now and the end of the year...with thousands still left unsold from before.
As for foreclosures...the bigger discounts are when you buy a distressed mortgage note (often at $0.30 on the Dollar) and do the foreclosure on the deadbeat later, yourself.
That’s buying U.S. real estate at a 70% discount.
Yea, housing was flat in most of the Mid Atlantic states from 1989 to 1999 or so. Thats a long period of time.. Its just ridiculous to assume you could beat inflation forever, wherever, in real estate.